Vayudoot: the mystery clears
During the course of 1981 reports began filtering through to the West of a remarkable new airline project
being launched by the Indian Govern
ment. According to the incomplete infor
mation available, the new airline would be
charged with no less a task than providing
scheduled third-level local air services
throughout the entire mighty Indian sub
continent. Reaction in the West was
tinged with incredulity.
But the reports kept coming in, and
gradually it became clear to Western
observers that the Indian Government
was serious in its resolve. The manu
facturers of several leading small Western
utility aircraft wereapproached to bid for
a potentially huge production and licence-
building contract. They learned that India
wanted about 200 light utility aircraft to
meet urgent national requirements. A
large number would be needed for military
duties, but many would-go to the new state
third-level airline. India obviously meant
business; but the new carrier still seemed
something of a pipe dream.
Even its name was mysterious.
Vayudoot; a name to intrigue the Western
mind, and not an "Airlines" or an "Air
Transport" to be found anywhere in the
title. What was this mystery airline all
about? Flight set out with intense
curiosity to uncover the facts. We
interviewed Vayudoot's general manager
Capt B. K. Bhasin and Board member
R. Prasad.
Vayudoot was indeed brought into being
to expand India's domestic air transport
network on a very large scale. A few years
ago, the national Government and India's
two major existing airlines became aware
that many towns round the country were
begging to be given scheduled air services.
It became obvious that there was an enor
mous well of potential air travellers
waiting to be tapped.
The Government agreed with Indian
Airlines and Air-India that it would cer
tainly be desirable to do something about
the situation. But immediately practical
problems arose. Indian Airlines, as the
State domestic carrier, should have been
the obvious choice to set up a national
third-level scheduled service network. But
it was realised right away that Indian Air
lines' cost and union structure was too
rigid, its overheads too high, ever to per
form the task economically. Indian
Airlines had always found it almost
impossible to operate its smallest air
craft — HS.748s and F.27s — eco
nomically; when combined with the effects
of the very low fares the Government
forced the airline to charge, its cost struc
ture demanded break-even load factors
which sometimes exceeded the capacity of
the aircraft.
. FLIGHT International, 8 January 1983
Above Vayudoot's general manager, CaptB. K.
Bhasin. Below The airline's logo. The curlicue
represents the Hindi character Wa— Vayudoot is
really pronounced Wayudoot—and the L-shape
represents Limited
Few in the air transport industry have heard of Vayudoot. But that
will change if all goes well in the next two or three years. Chris
Kjelgaard reports from New Delhi
would feed passengers into major Indian
Airlines destinations for rapid jet transit
on trunk routes. They would deplane
back to third-level services at the
other end so that they could reach
their destinations—wherever in the
country—quickly and easily.
And so Vayudoot began operations on
January 26, 1981, India's Independence
Day. Its first services were flown in the
remote north-east of the country, linking
towns in states such as Assam, Manipur,
and Tripura. The new airline's first air
craft were two F.27s leased from Indian
Airlines, which still provides extensive
technical and staff support for Vayudoot.
Vayudoot, not surprisingly, is a Hindi
word, or more correctly phrase. It literally
means "ambassador of the air"—"vayu"
stands for air, and "doot" for ambassador.
The name caught on in India immediately,
because it bears reference to fabulous
mythological aircraft discussed in one of
the most important Hindu scriptures. The
ancient scripture known as the Rama-
yana, which was written in the source
language Sanskrit, contains many refer
ences to "Pavandoot", a flying vehicle or
vehicles which transported human beings
in the far distant past. How far? The
Ramayana was written at least 7,000 years
ago. It is fundamental to Hindu culture,
and most Indians (particularly the poli
ticians) liked both the mythological con
nection and the idea of a totally Indian
name.
From the start Vayudoot had to struc
ture itself differently from Indian Airlines
and Air-India, though each owns 50 per
cert of the new carrier. Vayudoot was
allowed the use of two F.27s, and then two
HS.748s as well, to start schedules on a
fairly extensive network in the north and
north-east of the country. But it had to be
able to keep its cost structure well below
that of Indian Airlines to make the best
use of the $1 million invested in it.
The Vayudoot management also had to
make sure that inflexible union practices
did not kill off the new airline before it had
a chance to get started. Experienced pilots
were needed to get the airline flying. Bha
sin and his colleagues had to make the
pilot union understand that Vayudoot
could not follow the normal Indian re
cruitment practice of taking on and train
ing young and inexperienced pilots. If it
did, the airline would have to start oper
ations with raw hands on the controls of
its sizeable turboprop aircraft; and very
shortly afterwards it would have to entrust
its brand-new and expensive LTAs to the
Indian Airlines had other, happier,
problems to think about as well. Passenger
traffic on its existing network linking
major domestic destinations was growing
so fast that the airline was struggling to
get enough new jet aircraft into service
just to keep up. The tremendous effort
needed to gear up basic operational safety
standards, provide pilots and engineers,
and construct maintenance facilities for
such a large new project would unques
tionably have had an adverse effect on
Indian Airlines' existing operation.
So the decision was taken to bring into
being a totally new airline. Its raison d'etre
would be to develop a completely new
domestic network, linking up with Indian
Airlines' network at the biggest cities, and
some state capitals. All of the destinations
the new airline would serve (apart from
the few big base cities) would be com
pletely new, not covered by existing
Indian Airlines services. The new network
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